1
THE NEW TESTAMENT DEFINITION OF HERESY
(or When Do Jesus and the Apostles Really Get Mad?)
Despite our contemporary "information explosion," the compartmentalization of
modern scholarship leaves some intriguing gaps in the secondary literature. Numerous
church historians and systematic theologians have chronicled the debates between
"orthodoxy" and "heresy" for just about every major doctrine and era in the life of the
church.
1
Countless New Testament studies have analyzed what we can infer from the
apostolic texts about the nature of the false teachers and false teaching combated in the
first century.
2
But I have been unable to locate any study which both surveys the major
New Testament data, fully abreast of the most recent biblical scholarship, and compares
them with contemporary discussions about the boundaries of evangelical faith,
conversant with the recent literature in that arena as well. A short paper like this one can
only scratch the surface in tackling such an integrated task, but even preliminary efforts
would seem important.
The Synoptic Gospels
This study will presuppose the historical reliability of the Gospels and Acts
3
and
thus speak of events in the lives of Jesus and his contemporaries as well as the theological
1
From an evangelical perspective, see esp. the historical overview by Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1984). Much briefer, but still helpful, from an evangelical systematician's
perspective is Robert M. Bowman, Orthodoxy and Heresy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992). The classic liberal
study impinging on the New Testament is, of course, Walter Bauer, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest
Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971; Germ. orig., ). A balanced response is found in H. E. W.
Turner, The Pattern of Christian Truth (London: Mowbray, 1954). Good examples of studies of specific
periods or developments include Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy (New York: Holmes and Meier,
1976); David S. Lovejoy, Religious Enthusiasm in the New World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1985); and
John Dart, The Jesus of Heresy and History (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988).
2
Often conveniently summarized in a subsection of commentary introductions, with bibliographies.
Representative examples of specialized studies include Fred O. Francis, Conflict at Colossae (Missoula:
SBL, 1973); David Hill, "False Prophets and Charismatics," Bib 57 (1976): 327-48; Luke T. Johnson, "II
Timothy and the Polemic against False Teachers," JRS 6 (1978): 1-26; and Hans C. C. Cavallin, "The False
Teachers of 2 Peter as Pseudo-Prophets," NovT 21 (1979): 263-70.
3
See my book, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Downers Grove: IVP, 1987); and Colin J. Hemer,
The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, ed. Conrad H. Gempf (Tübingen: Mohr, 1989).